Lines 1-4

In line 1 of “Whoso List to Hunt,” the narrator states that for those who wish to hunt, he knows of a particular hind, a female deer. The narrator himself is trying to abandon the hunt, acknowledging in line 2 that this hind is beyond his reach. Indeed, he is “wearied” from the “vain travail,” the useless work, of the hunt; he has begun to recognize the futility of the pursuit. He laments in the fourth line that he is the last of the pursuers, the one “that farthest cometh behind.”

Lines 5-8

In the second stanza, the narrator states that he cannot take his “wearied mind . . . from the deer.” When she flees, he proclaims, “Fainting I follow.” Nevertheless, he is ultimately forced to indeed abandon the chase, as she is too fast and all that he can catch is the wind that rises after she passes. In...